China and Taiwan
Buddhism in mainland China has grown considerably since the 1980s after decades of suppression, within limits set by the state: temples are restored, pilgrimage is popular, and religious organisation is closely regulated.
Taiwan is the most institutionally creative part of the Buddhist world today. Tzu Chi runs hospitals, universities and disaster relief internationally. Fo Guang Shan and Dharma Drum Mountain run temples, publishing and education on several continents, and women are a visible majority of their monastic membership.
Japan, Korea, Vietnam
Japanese Buddhism faces a demographic problem rather than a doctrinal one. Most families are affiliated to a temple for funerals and memorials, which gave the tradition a secure place and also tied it to a single function; as rural populations age and move to the cities, thousands of temples have no successor and no congregation.
Korean Buddhism, chiefly the Jogye Order in Jinul's line, runs an active monastic training system and a well known temple stay programme. Vietnamese Buddhism combines Chan, Pure Land and ancestral practice, at home and in a large diaspora.
What it looks like
Devotion to Guanyin and Amitābha, chanting, memorial rites, vegetarian meals, releasing animals, charitable giving and pilgrimage: for most East Asian Buddhists these are the practice, and meditation is one part of a much wider life rather than the whole of it.
Why it matters
A living family of traditions across East Asia and beyond.
History and tradition
What historians can say
Figures are difficult here above all. In China, surveys that ask about belief and surveys that ask about practice produce very different numbers, and the Pew estimate of around 244 million Buddhists in China is a cautious middle reading rather than a count.